Salutations,
As a matter of fact, The James Gang would print on their albums that the
recordings were made a full volume and it should be played at full volume.
David
>
> As far as everything I've read is concerned, when pushed to their
> limit, transistor amplifiers tend to clip the tops of the audio
> waveforms; the sound is 'harsh.'
>
> Tubes, on the other hand, tend to gracefully 'round off' the tops of
> the wave forms; the sound is distorted but a lot more listenable than
> the clipped transistor sound.
>
> Guitar amps tended to be used closer to full power than other amps;
> the distortion was more common than not. As a result, a 'lot' of
> recordings were made with the distorted sound of overdriven amps.
> IIRC, there are distortion boxes that intentionally re-create the
> distortion of an overdriven tube guitar amp!
>
> --Paul E Musselman
> PaulMmn_at_ix.netcom.nospam.com
>
>
>
>
>> On Tue, 2001-11-06 at 12:09, Michael J. Hu=DFmann wrote:
>>>
>>> This has always been baffling me: I can understand why a guitarist may
>>> prefer a tube amp -- the distortion from a tube amp will be different
>>> from a transistor amp, and therefore the sound will be different as well=
> =2E
>>> But with hi-fi equipment, one would avoid ever reaching the the point
>>> where distortion occurs, so how can it matter?
>>
>> At risk of fanning a tube/transistor discussion too much:
>>
>> 'Distortion,' in common parlance, has come to mean 'audible clipping
>> distortion' -- that buzzy noise you get when your audio reproduction
>> system is pushed far enough past its limits so that it starts 'squaring
>> off' the tops of waveforms.
>>
>> Strictly speaking, though, -any- sound reproduction introduces
>> distortion, changes in the input waveform. For the most part, they are
>> subaudible, but they are there, and even at low volumes, transient
>> spikes can push your system into compression or clipping.
>>
>> Tube equipment distorts differently from transistor equipment (unless
>> you're doing Bob Carver-style magic in the background), at all levels of
>> distortion from subaudible on up to full clipping.
>>
>> The accepted reason that people prefer tubes is that tube distortion
>> emphasizes even-order harmonics, while transistors don't. Even-order
>> harmonics are, in nature, much more in-tune with the fundamental they're
>> derived from, and so de-emphasizing odd-order harmonics can make sounds
>> subjectively less 'harsh.'
>>
>> So, even at normal non-clipping listening levels, tubes introduce very
>> small levels of 'distortion' that are pleasing to the ear; transistors
>> introduce small levels of 'distortion' that may or may not be.
>>
>> --
>> R Pickett The people that once bestowed commands, consulships,
>> Hayseed Networks legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs
>> emerson_at_hayseed.net eagerly for just two things -- bread and circuses.
>
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